


the precipice

by inverse



Series: an accumulation of inevitabilities [4]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-05-04
Packaged: 2018-01-21 21:02:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1563944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inverse/pseuds/inverse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the peculiarities of modern living. kise gen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the precipice

**Author's Note:**

> a very, very loose prequel to [goodbye cruel summer](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1549427).

Caffeine doesn’t leave your body for eight hours, so Kise’s leaning against one of the formica-topped counters in his kitchen at two a.m. in the morning, cup of water in one hand, cell phone glaring in his face in the other. He’s refreshing his inbox for what feels like the millionth time, but even for someone as well-connected as he is, no one’s replying to his texts. This has to be a mistake. Maybe something’s wrong with the telco.

Just a few hours earlier, he’d met Moriyama for coffee. They hadn’t seen each other since a team reunion a couple of years ago. Moriyama had moved to Tokyo because he had just started working for a multinational in Marunouchi. He could still commute from his home in Kanagawa, but that would take up too much time from day to day. They agreed to meet up at a Starbucks in Ginza. Right after they exchanged greetings, Moriyama relayed sadly – as they queued up for their coffee – that he still hadn’t gotten a steady girlfriend despite all those years in university, even going so far as to study economics because there were more girls there than were in engineering, another discipline he was considering. It was a weekday night, but the area was still crowded from the throng of young professionals who had just gotten off work and were grouping up for dinner or supper. Despite the fact that he was wearing a hoodie and sunglasses (at night, to boot), Kise still got a few suspicious glances from some of the patrons.

“I thought you used to like the fancy stuff,” Moriyama said later, eyeing Kise’s iced Americano as he sipped from it. “Ice-blended with lots of milk and caramel and whipped cream with chocolate syrup on top, or something.”

“Gotta watch my weight these days,” Kise grimaced, the acidity of the watered-down espresso cutting his tongue. There wasn’t much else of a flavour profile to the drink. “You know coffee burns calories if you drink it without milk and sugar, right?”

“Is that what women like? Men who look like skin and bones? That can’t be right.”

“It’s for my job, Moriyama-senpai. And I’m not skin and bones, that’s hurtful. I’m just lean. I’m very healthy.” 

“Keep a secret, will you,” said Moriyama miserably, listlessly stirring his latte. “I’ve been struggling with my weight ever since I’ve started working here. It’s only been a few months and I’ve already been piling on the pounds. If I’m lucky I find the time to hit the gym twice a week. Is this how you find out that you’ve grown old? When you start putting on weight like crazy with no option to lose any of it? How am I going to get married like this? I’m twenty-six, I’m not getting any younger. And the scary thing is that I’m not getting any skinnier either.”

“Maybe you could ask for non-fat milk in your coffee, for starters. Just a suggestion.”

Kobori had apparently been shipped off to the Shanghai office of the company he was working for, and Kasamatsu was virtually non-contactable, given his aversion to social networking and aimless small talk in general. His last Facebook update was literally six years old. Moriyama had his home address and joked that since snail mail was probably the fastest way to reach and get a response from him, Kise should flood his mailbox with copies of each and every issue of the magazines he covered.

“I thought I saw him at work once,” Kise complained, fishing for sympathy. “Even though it was completely impossible that he’d be on a film set, going around fixing the lights. So I yelled, ‘Kasamatsu-senpai!’ in the middle of the set. The guy didn’t even look like him when he turned around – just his hair. Totally embarrassing!”

“You know, I was actually only half-joking about the snail mail,” Moriyama replied, playing with the uncomfortably tight-looking knot of his tie. “Write him a letter if you miss him so much. He might just write one back.”

Before they parted ways, Moriyama said the same old thing he used to say to Kise all the time. “Let’s have a group date soon, Kise. You must know so many actresses now. Bring them along for my sake, okay?” 

“Why don’t you tell the girls at your office that you know Kise Ryouta,” Kise grinned as they walked towards the station, “and then I can put in a spectacular word for you about how you were the handsome and dashing ace of our high school basketball team.”

“Sounds like a plan,” replied Moriyama, and disappeared behind the gates with a casual wave. “See you again sometime.” Kise walked home afterwards since his apartment was within walking distance.

The apartment is a fairly new one. He signed the lease a few months ago on the advice of his new manager, who was from his new agency, which he’d signed a new contract with when the last one expired. They wanted to market him in a different way. “We want you to be taken seriously, Ryouta-kun,” she said, adjusting her glasses with one finger on the bridge, in a manner reminiscent of someone he used to know. “Up till now, you’ve only been featured in a few magazines targeted towards teenagers, and made a couple of cameos on a few sitcoms. In that same, tired perfect teenage boyfriend role. We think it’s time you transited to the next stage in your career – and with that, you’ll have to upgrade yourself. Where you live, the clothes you wear, the people you hang out with.” She regarded him predatorily from behind her lenses, her stare sharp and focused. “And your skills, of course. We think you’re worth our investment and we hope you’ll prove us right.”

It’s a good place to live – the units are small and the kitchen is basically a corridor with a stove in it, but he doesn’t need much space for just himself anyway; it’s centrally-located, the neighbours are mostly polite, affluent, well-dressed, mind-your-own-business singles, and the area is bustling whether day or night, which is the kind of energetic, vibrant environment that Kise thrives in. It’s also easier to open the front door at three in the morning, smelling like cigarette smoke and musty nightclub air, crashing loudly against the gate in a halfway-drunken state without waking your parents. (Especially when you’ve got a companion in tow.) When he’s got time to himself, he prefers to spend it outside with friends and acquaintances, but for the rare few times that he decides to stay in, there’s a small balcony in the back that faces the busy, dusty main road. He’s been acting more these days, so it’s a good place to people-watch and pick up their habits, but he lives on the twelfth floor, so sometimes he has to squint. 

He’s about to give up on waiting, rinsing his cup under the faucet, when his phone buzzes on the countertop, shimmying a few centimetres to its left, as if happy for him. It’s Ai-chan, one of the junior makeup artists for a magazine he features in regularly.

 

**From: Ai-chan, 01/07/2021 2:12 a.m.**  
Re: ( ≧Д≦) CAN’T SLEEP!!!!  
wat’s wrong??? u shld go to bed. ur eye circles keep getting worse o(≧∇≦o) eyebags-san. wwwww 

**To: Ai-chan, 01/07/2021 2:13 a.m.**  
Re: ( ≧Д≦) CAN’T SLEEP!!!!  
don’t laugh (T⌓T) no one wants to talk to me. sob 

**From: Ai-chan, 01/07/2021 2:13 a.m.**  
Re: ( ≧Д≦) CAN’T SLEEP!!!!  
at least ur at home. just got back from work. sucks to be me 

**From: Ai-chan, 01/07/2021 2:14 a.m.**  
Re: ( ≧Д≦) CAN’T SLEEP!!!!  
u know kida shizuku?? thats whose shoot just ended. total pain to work with!!! 

**To: Ai-chan, 01/07/2021 2:14 a.m.**  
Re: ( ≧Д≦) CAN’T SLEEP!!!!  
what?? i thought she was nice… Σ(゜ロ゜;) 

**From: Ai-chan, 01/07/2021 2:18 a.m.**  
Re: ( ≧Д≦) CAN’T SLEEP!!!!  
only bc ur cute ლ(ಠ_ಠლ) 

**To: Ai-chan, 01/07/2021 2:19 a.m.**  
Re: ( ≧Д≦) CAN’T SLEEP!!!!  
(⊙﹏⊙✿) 

**From: Ai-chan, 01/07/2021 2:27 a.m.**  
Re: ( ≧Д≦) CAN’T SLEEP!!!!  
k gotta hit the sack. see u on saturday. remember to take care of ur eyebags  
otherwise ur photos won’t turn out pretty. wwwww 

 

Kise pulls his comforter over his head, because the light from the streetlamps outside sift in through his curtains, and it’s distracting. Ginza is a busy district, so even though it’s the dead of night, he can still hear the honks coming from a few stray cabs. He used to be able to fall asleep anywhere when he was a teenager, but nowadays he’s a bit more sensitive to things like light and sound. It’s warm and toasty underneath the covers, like a makeshift ford against the air-conditioning.

It’s already 2:41 – he refreshes his inbox one last time – the light from his cellphone screen illuminating the lumpy, uneven innards of his cottony surroundings. This world is dead and quiet amidst the few signs of life from beneath his apartment. Then he closes his eyes, phosphenes in swirling patterns underneath his lids, and waits.


End file.
